Blog@GraceJunction

19 April, 2008.
A man was lynched by a mob when he tried to flee after attacking Ahmedabad-based motivational speaker. The incident happened around noon on Saturday when a man in his thirties, later identified as Anagh Lalu from Surat barged into the office of Dr Jeetendra Adhia, a motivational speaker, on Judges Bungalow Road and attacked Adhia with a sharp weapon and fled. Adhia’s staff members chased him shouting ‘thief thief’ and were joined in by a mob of around 25 others, till a nearby location,where he was beaten to death! Meanwhile Adhia (the motivational speaker) was taken to a hospital and treated for a 1.5-inch deep injury on his skull. He is out of danger. The police have booked Lalu for attempted murder, and the mob for Lalu’s murder. (more…)

The title caught my sleepy eye’s attention early morning as I was on the train from Mumbai. “My sins have been cleansed: Nalini”. Three consecutive ‘less-sleep’ nights and long days of work were taking a toll on me physically but I just could not quell my curiosity after seeing the title. I just waited for my co-passenger to finish reading the newspaper so that I can get a hold of it.

As I went through the article, I understood that it was about the visit which Ms. Priyanka Vadra (D/o late Indian Prime Minister Mr. Rajiv Gandhi) paid to Ms. Nalini who is serving a life term for involvement in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. (more…)

16 april, 2008

6.10 am, Bodeli, Gujarat. A state transport bus carrying approximately 50 people is travelling towards Dabhoi. Out of the total passengers about 45 are school children going to give their final exam.

6.15 am, the bus reaches the Narmada Canal overbridge and tries to overtake a truck that is already almost there on the bridge and so he speeds up. 

6.15 am, Right front wheel of the bus hits the foot-path on the bridge at great speed, snapping a thick metal rod connecting the two front wheels and the steering wheel. The wheels froze at the angle at which it hit the foot path. With the connection between the wheels and the steering rod snapped, the driver had no control over the bus anymore. He was not a driver anymore, just a mere spectator, albeit for a few seconds more! The bus jumped the foot path, burst through the concerete railings and plunged 60 feet into the canal. (more…)

Husband alleges that wife doesn’t wear modern clothes. Another alleges that wife doesn’t have table manners. Still another felt that his wife didn’t gel well with his colleagues. Another alleged that wife refused to drink in some of the office parties. Another liked someone else after marriage and started finding faults in his wife. One husband was angry because she got out of bed late and didn’t make him the morning tea to sip along with his newspaper. A more enterprising husband felt that his wife didn’t experiment while love making! A wife suspects her husband of seeing someone else due to coming late from office everyday. Another feels that it is not right for her alone to do all the household chores, afterall, she is working too. Another feels that because she washes his inner wear, he should wash her inner wears too! Many other wives do not want to stay with their in-laws. Some are not happy because he gets angry and shouts. (more…)

Three students of Class XII committed suicides in three days of the exams having started. In less than three months of 2008, 15 students of Class X and Class XII committed suicide across the state. A mother, troubled by her unfaithful husband, jumped into a lake with her three children in the wee hours of one morning. All three died. Another 32 old mother of two had a quarrel with her husband went on to hang herself to death. A son of a police official committed suicide under mysterious circumstances. Another woman who came to her father’s house, consumed poison and succumbed at the hospital. Another woman immolated herself due to constant bickering by her in-laws over a property dispute. Another young girl hung herself from the ceiling fan under mysterious curcumstances. She had only married a few months back. A five member family committed suicide by consuming poison due to financial crisis. (more…)

The Times Group had outclassed rivals at the Abby Nite in Mumbai— powered by a brilliant ad campaign done by Grey Worldwide, centered around saving the girl child, which appeared in The Times of India, Ahmedabad edition, in October-November 2006. With five golds and one silver, the ‘Jaago Gujarat’ campaign was a clear winner in the category of Public Service Advertising at the Ad Club of Mumbai’s 40th Abby Awards function at Royal Turf Club.

The Times of India, Ahmedabad edition’s ‘Jaago Gujarat-Save the Girl Child’ campaign, one of the most successful and long-running examples of positive activism for a social cause, also swept the UNFPA-Laadli Media Awards for Gender Sensitivity 2006-07. In the western region awards, TOI-Ahmedabad won the award for the “Best Campaign on the issue of Sex Selection by a Media Group.” Special correspondent Radha Sharma, who spearheaded the campaign, bagged the award for best reporting in the category of ‘News Features-Print Media in English Newspapers’. Advertising agency Grey Worldwide bagged an award for the ‘Best Public Service Advertisement in Print’ for the advertisement campaign around the girl child issue in TOI-Ahmedabad.

Some campaign! Everyone bagged something or the other! (more…)

The 80’s to the early years of the 21st century has seen the most happening time in history and I am privileged to have witnessed it all. Mankind has seen many changes in and around him. We have seen rapid strides being taken in education, technology and research. Communication has become faster and information is flying. Things which looked impossible in history are a reality today, what could not be achieved in centuries is getting achieved in a short span of time. Everything is measured in speed and size. Gone are the days, when parents used to tell their children that slow and steady wins the race, the fast and furious have taken over. The rabbit is worth emulating and he wins over the tortoise every time, or so it is believed to be!

(more…)

A grey silver Lancer zoomed out of the darkness down the Judges Bungalow road in Ahmedabad at break neck speed, late in the night, and zoomed into “more darkness”, literally breaking necks (well almost)! The inebriated (apparently) driver lost control of his racing machine, hit a lamp post, flipped over the road divider and then did an acrobatic turn(over) on to the other side of the road.

Yet another fallout of late night racing on empty city roads; something that is becoming a common phenomenon on roads across India.  The driver somehow escaped, but the passenger was trapped and is grievously injured.

What happened after that? Nothing! There is no rule to book any of them. The incident has to be dismissed as a freak accident! (more…)

And God created man in his own image; male and female he created them and blessed them saying,” Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it”….

Well, that is exactly what man has been implementing till date – multiply (so much such that there arises a need to develop organizations which are worried about controlling the ever increasing population) and at the same time exercise dominion over all the earth. Nevertheless, the human race is pretty adaptive and has managed to accommodate one and all.

Apart from doing what man was asked to do, he realized the need to expand his intellectual initiatives and designs. One of them was woman’s advancement!! They also gave it a beautiful synonym – Feminism!! (more…)

Denied his daily staple of porn and horror films on his personal computer, a youth from an affluent family in Kolhapur, Maharashtra decided to get rid of what he thought was the root cause of his misery. Abhishek Patil (21) confessed that he had murdered his grandmother Shantabai Patil (67) in cold blood on April 3. The youth was apparently angry that he had been asked to vacate his room to accommodate his grandmother after she had moved to their house recently.

Shantabai had recently shifted to the home of her elder son and Abhishek’s father, Shirish Patil, who is a doctor. Abhishek was upset with his grandmother using his room as he could not get his dose of horror and porn clips which he used to watch on his computer, he said. Abhishek was told by his parents to share a room with his brother, Viren. (more…)